Weird interview behaviour

We all have our indulgences. While one person will be eating raw cookie dough in their kitchen, another will be curled up on the couch watching reruns of Gilmore Girls. My indulgence, and I’m sure many others, is to read embarrassing stories. Better yet, I love to read about weird behaviour – especially weird interview behaviour. The strange and ridiculous things that people do when under pressure in an interview makes for some of the best stories. The more embarrassing they are, the better. In an act of indulgence, I’ve rounded up some of the most bizarre, horrifying and weird interview behaviour I could find. Each comes from a different survey, different interviewer or different rumour-mill. For your reading pleasure, enjoy this collection of outrageously weird interview behaviour. And rest assured, if you don’t get the job, or feel like you made a fool of yourself, at least you didn’t do these things. In the midst of all the seriousness that is the job searching industry, this brings a little bit of light and comfort.

Weird interview behaviour

Rhodri Marsden, collector of Twitter anecdotes, offered some of his favourite stories on weird interview behaviour…

“While conducting an interview the candidate asked me “Do you get many death threats?” It was an inbound call company. Selling stationery.”

“I interviewed one woman for an admin job who had a picture of herself on her CV. In a leopard-print bra top drinking a bottle of Bud.”

“I interviewed a man who seemed OK. At end he asked if the fact he was Jesus and needed to spread the word of God was a problem. It was.”

The Huffington Post conducted a survey of their staff to find out what some of the weirdest things they’d encountered in job interviews were…

“I once interviewed someone for a job, emailed them to tell them they hadn’t got it, and they emailed back asking me out.”

The Wall Street Journal had a fantastic article on how to impress in under a minute. They also had the best examples of what weird interview behaviour to avoid…

“Candidate shipped a lemon with a resume, stating, ‘I am not a lemon.'”

“Candidate wore a Boy Scout uniform to the interview, and never told the interviewer why.”

“Candidate asked for a sip of the interviewer’s coffee.”

There are a number of reasons you might not be getting the job. But there are a number of reasons that resonate with virtually all interviewers. These include:

chewing gum

using your phone in an interview

dressing inappropriately

appearing uninterested

appearing arrogant and

talking badly about your previous employers

It seems like common sense, but enough people do these things to result in widespread surveying of interviewers on weird interview behaviour. When it comes to a job interview, you want to impress them, you want to talk yourself up a little, and you want to put your best foot forward. At the end of the day, you want to avoid all of these examples of weird interview behaviour, and focus on presenting yourself professionally and in a friendly manner. Think of these amusing little indulgences as a list of what not to do, and keep them in mind when you feel like you flunked an interview. I promise you, it could be much, much worse.